Road safety updates - March 2023

Data from the Speed Indication Devices (SID’s)

78% of vehicles entering Longdon upon Tern from High Ercall are violating the speed limits, this has reduced from 85% since October 2022. And 56% of vehicles entering Longdon upon Tern from Shawbirch are violating the speed limits, this is down from 67% since October 2022.

Whilst these numbers are still unacceptable and too high, it shows that the SID’s are making some impact in reducing the number of people violating speed limits.

The Parish Council firmly believes that this data proves that the speed restriction/slow down points should be moved further back to increase advanced warning notice before vehicles enter the parish and get caught by the SID’s.

Road Safety Scheme (RSS)

In September last year TWC agreed that we could have an RSS developed, but these schemes take time, money and we're on a waiting list with other parishes in the borough who also have schemes being developed, some already mid-way through.

The Parish Council does not wish to wait around, so we're starting with an informal consultation to gather your thoughts on what safer roads in this parish could look like.

This survey is not heavily technical, nor does it need to be at this stage. We are simply using this opportunity to gather your thoughts, get a better picture of what residents would and would not support. We'll use this information when we sit down with Highways Engineers. We hope this would speed the process up as we would already have some ideas on what road safety measures residents want to see, this allows the engineers designing the scheme to eliminate any time consuming work designing something that our residents don't want to see.

We thank you in advance for filling out this survey. The survey is open until 12:00 on the 16th June. Following the closing of this survey we will meet with TWC and start Stage 2 of the scheme.

Despite the survey being underway, we are already taking into account a number of issues that have been raised with the Parish Council.

Namely: traffic lighting potentially on Longdon bridge, 20mph through Longdon, horse signs in various areas in the parish, Tern Lane and Sugden Lane speed reduction, give way sign on bridge needs to be pulled back, a proper footpath over the bridge, potential chicane to slow down the road even more on the B5063 to name a few.

On the 16th March the Parish Clerk received an apology from the Director of Highways regarding the lack of response and commitment from Telford & Wrekin Council to support the Parish Council with an RSS. This is in response to the Clerk’s letter on the 4th March raising not only Councillors disappointment, but also residents frustrations at the lack of movement on this scheme which is so important to so many.

For information, the RSS steps are;

1. Informal consultation lead by the parish council (online survey).
2. Initial designs developed by Telford & Wrekin Council.
3. Informal consultation on initial designs lead by the parish council (open sessions in village halls).
4. Formal designs developed by Telford & Wrekin Council.
5. Informal consultation on formal designs lead by the parish council (open sessions in village halls).
6. Final designs developed by Telford & Wrekin Council.
7. Formal consultation on final designs lead by Telford & Wrekin Council (online and open sessions in village halls).
8. Amendments (if identified) made and scheme proposed to parish council to adopt and finance.

Structural and diving inspections of Longdon upon Tern Bridge

Formal requests of these two inspections have been made to Telford & Wrekin Council. The last inspections were taken in 2020 and we have asked that they be reviewed again, and we are kept informed of dates of inspections and the subsequent reports.

Cllr Jacqui Seymour had the officers at TWC confirm on the 8th February that a structural inspection would be done before 31st March 2023, but if the bridge was found to be of sound condition they would not consider another diving inspection yet.